[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 172 (Wednesday, October 30, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H8601-H8602]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         COMMEMORATING OXI DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Iowa 
(Mr. King) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KING of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to be recognized to 
address you here on the floor of the House of Representatives. I rise 
to honor, this week, to celebrate what actually took place on Monday, 
the 28th of October, Oxi Day, the 79th anniversary.
  I wanted to address this because of the strong spirit of the Greek 
people, who rose up against the Axis Powers 79 years ago this week when 
a representative of Hitler's Axis Powers, who happened to be the 
minister from the Italians, arrived at the residence of the Greek 
leader Metaxas and demanded that they surrender Greece to the Italians 
and the Axis forces.
  There, Metaxas looked him in the eye and said, boldly and strongly, 
``Oxi,'' which is Greek for ``no.'' That is the most resounding ``no'' 
that I know of in history, Mr. Speaker. That resounding ``no'' inspired 
the Greek people.
  Within hours, the Italians and the Axis forces had started their 
invasion of Greece, and they were overconfident. They thought they 
would waltz in because they had all kinds of military firepower, but 
what they underestimated was the tenacity of the Greek fighters, their 
knowledge of the terrain, and defending their own soil.
  They were defeated, and the Greeks chased the Italians back to Italy, 
which forced, then, Adolf Hitler to divert five divisions down through 
Greece and down through the Balkans into Greece to put down the--they 
called it a revolution or a resurrection. What it really was, was 
inspired people defending their country, the very cradle of democracy. 
As Hitler diverted the five divisions down to Greece, he was already 
planning the Operation Barbarossa.
  I want the body to know, Mr. Speaker, that the original date for the 
invasion of Russia under Operation Barbarossa by Hitler that his Nazi 
forces put together was scheduled to be May 12, the following spring. 
This is late October, the last days of October. So when he diverted his 
five divisions down to suppress what he said was the resurrection in 
the Balkans, which was the Greeks defending the cradle of freedom, that 
delayed his ability to invade Russia.
  This tenacious battle on the part of the Greeks--now, I should also 
put it into context here, that no one expected such a small nation to 
derail the unstoppable Axis forces. They had watched as the Axis forces 
had gone through Czechoslovakia and Poland, Romania and France, and 
down through the Balkans. It looked like those Axis forces were going 
to sweep over the world. It didn't look like there

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was much hope for the United Kingdom and the British Empire across the 
channel.
  When you think about the inevitable clash that was going to take 
place between the Nazis and the Russians, that would have been the 
clash that would have determined which power ruled the world--coupled 
with Japanese imperialism, America isolated as a lone island, sitting 
over here on this continent, in the Western Hemisphere, awfully tough 
to battle on both sides when you have the resources of the globe lined 
up against you.
  The future of America may well have turned in that battle as well, 
Mr. Speaker.
  So I rise to honor, support, and, with awe, celebrate the Greek 
fighters, who George Beres writes: ``As Hitler learned, Greeks can be 
stubborn against all odds. `Oxi,' the word `no' in Greek, may sound 
like a negative, but it has become the most positive word in the 
language. It suggests the independence of a small nation when 
confronted by selfish demands of much larger nations.''
  I would point out that if Hitler had been able to launch Operation 
Barbarossa on May 12--he was delayed 5\1/2\ weeks. Those 5\1/2\ weeks 
would have given him time to take Stalingrad, to take Moscow, before 
the bitter Russian winter. That would have changed the entire course of 
the war.
  The Greeks did it twice for us, in Crete and then again on Oxi Day 
starting those 79 years ago this week. I am awfully proud of the spirit 
of the Greeks.
  I would close, Mr. Speaker, with this quote from Winston Churchill in 
the aftermath of the Greek battles against the Nazis, which says: 
``Hence, we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes 
fight like Greeks.''
  Let us honor them. We are a nation that has descended from the 
democracy that was formed in Greece. We modified it to a constitutional 
republic and did a little improvement on it, but we can use a lot of 
Greeks in this country. They understand freedom, and they are great 
fighters.

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